McLendon-Chisolm

I explored the heck out of the dirt roads south of Forney in 2020, but there are alleged to be even more to the north. So, while I was in town, I did a bit of research, put together a rough GPX, drove out to Ben Gill Park, and headed north.

The wind was the strongest I've ever ridden in. It felt like climbing in the mountains when it was in my face, and the crosswinds were just dangerous. I had to lean pretty hard into it, and every time it would gust or let up I'd have to react quickly or end up in the road or the ditch. It was nervewracking to say the least.

The legends were true though, there were plenty of good gravel roads up there. It had rained two days earlier, and they were already rideable, a rarity on the blackland prairie.

The Terrell Sand Box looked inviting.

There weren't any private property or no-trespassing signs, at the entrance. It looked like a place you could dump your dirt or debris and they'd give you money for it. There were piles everywhere and a huge open pit, now full of water. I rode in, took a good long look, and headed out. On the way out, I passed a guy in a truck who stopped me though. He was friendly enough, but let me know that it wasn't just open to the public and that I shouldn't be in there. No problem. I headed out.

It turned out that I'd ridden in from the south, but all along the west edge of the property were Posted signs. If I'd come in from the north I'd have seen them.

After a while, I passed the Poetry watertower. There's a community called Poetry out there, but I didn't ride through it that day.

Some of the roads that were alleged to be gravel had been paved, but others hadn't.

Some were still gravel.

Some were just dirt.

Some used to be paved and had just deteriorated into gravel.

There were lots of farms and ranches up there. In a few places it just looked green forever.

And there were so many cows.

Other than the wind, it was a really great ride. I covered like 40 miles and the whole area really had a good East Texas feel to it.

On the drive back home though, I saw this insanity:

What in the world?

The cars were full of gravel or dirt or something and the excavator was driving along the tops of the cars, digging dirt/gravel out of them and dumping it on the ground to the side of the rail. When it had dug all it could out of one spot, it would back up and dig some more. When it hit the end of the car, it would precariously back over the space between them and carry on. Just prior to this photo, he had been in the grey car, and had just backed over the gap into the black car as I stopped to get the shot. I feel like an OSHA inspector would have a heart attack if they saw this.